Boynton residents feel isolated without bridge

September 23, 2003|By VICKI ROCK, Daily American Staff Writer

Tropical storm Isabel sent the Casselman River over Ernest Miller Road and Doneytown Road in Boynton Friday morning, isolating 50 families because their alternate route over Moser Bridge ended when Somerset County razed the bridge.

Several residents attended Tuesday's meeting of the Somerset County commissioners to ask them to build a new bridge.

Harvey Moser said the bridge was built in 1894. He and his brother farm on both sides of the river. The bridge carried Township Route 353 over the river north of Boynton. It was closed in May when a structural engineer found problems in one of the steel trusses. It has since been torn down.

"We have to take farm equipment out into traffic on Route 219 (when the roadway isn't closed)," he said. "There's a bad curve there. The Ernest Miller-Route 219 intersection is also dangerous. We feel that the county commissioners should try to replace the bridge. It's needed."

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Janet Hochard, a resident, said there was no way in or out of that area from Friday morning to Friday evening. She is an emergency medical technician and couldn't have responded to any emergencies. Several people who live in that area are on oxygen, she said, and one woman baby-sits six children. While she only had two in her care that day, their parents couldn't reach them.

"There's no where to land a helicopter if it's needed in an emergency, the fields were under water, too," she said. "You're putting the lives of 50 families, over 100 people, in danger."

Bill Short, an Elk Lick Township supervisor, said the other route on the map, Skyline Drive, is impassable because of mining.

"The roads flood two to four times a year, every spring," he said.

Chris Maust, vice president of the Salisbury Volunteer Fire Department, said the bridge was also used as a detour when accidents occur on Route 219.

"It was impossible to get across on Friday," he said. "I couldn't drive it in my pick-up."

When the van delivering home meals couldn't get through, a resident used an all-terrain vehicle to pick up the meals, Hochard said.

Moser presented the commissioners with a petition with more than 400 signatures and letters from the township supervisors and the fire department.

Commissioner Jimmy Marker said either a vehicle hit the bridge or an overweight vehicle used it, causing the damage.

Craig Weaver, engineer with the EADS Group, showed the Boynton residents photos of where the bridge failed. The low cord of the truss broke, he said. The bridge didn't collapse because a piece of the guardrail was bent in and held the structure up.

"We're fortunate it didn't fall down," he said. "Our inspector showed me the photos and said he thought it would fall. We closed it right away. It's not an easy repair and it would have been very expensive."

One reason it was closed immediately was it could have fallen at any time, endangering people who crossed it, Marker said. The Department of Environmental Protection issued the county an emergency permit to demolish it.

It would cost $1.5 million to replace the bridge, he said, and the county's share of the cost, $300,000, is 1 1/2-times the county's budget for maintenance of all 60 bridges in the county.

Somerset County can't afford to replace a bridge on its own, Marker said. Thirty county bridges are already on the billion dollar bridge project request for funding list. The majority of bridges in the county were built in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

"What will we do when we can't get out?," Hochard asked.

The fire department isn't equipped or trained for rescuing people by boat, Maust said.

"We can't put a dollar amount on a life," Commissioner Brad Cober said. "No one is land-locked, but you were on Friday because of the hurricane. Nobody knows when it will flood again. We can take a look at the culverts or improving the road. We'll take your concerns under advisement and try and determine if there's federal or state funding available, but it won't happen quickly."